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Trump just pulled out of TPP - Will rioters and MSM take note or just pretend it didn't happen?

Mon, 2017-01-23 14:01 — admin

Trump has just done something good. WhiteHouse.gov has announced, via President Trump, that the TPP deal will no longer have the United States as a participant. The TPP was one of Obama’s deeply unpopular 'achievements', in terms of trade deals, and Trump has quickly lived up to his promise to remove the United States from the deal. Will anti-Trump demonstrators who shout about 'democracy' concede that this is what most of us wanted and the thing that the power-elite pre-Trump were determined to withold from us? The MSM (mainstream media) will probably hardly report this or it will report it as disastrous, using econogabble and corporate talking heads for hire to confuse everyone.

Whitehouse announcement

For too long, Americans have been forced to accept trade deals that put the interests of insiders and the Washington elite over the hard-working men and women of this country. As a result, blue-collar towns and cities have watched their factories close and good-paying jobs move overseas, while Americans face a mounting trade deficit and a devastated manufacturing base.

With a lifetime of negotiating experience, the President understands how critical it is to put American workers and businesses first when it comes to trade. With tough and fair agreements, international trade can be used to grow our economy, return millions of jobs to America’s shores, and revitalize our nation’s suffering communities.

This strategy starts by withdrawing from the Trans-Pacific Partnership and making certain that any new trade deals are in the interests of American workers. President Trump is committed to renegotiating NAFTA. If our partners refuse a renegotiation that gives American workers a fair deal, then the President will give notice of the United States’ intent to withdraw from NAFTA.

In addition to rejecting and reworking failed trade deals, the United States will crack down on those nations that violate trade agreements and harm American workers in the process. The President will direct the Commerce Secretary to identify all trade violations and to use every tool at the federal government’s disposal to end these abuses.

To carry out his strategy, the President is appointing the toughest and smartest to his trade team, ensuring that Americans have the best negotiators possible. For too long, trade deals have been negotiated by, and for, members of the Washington establishment. President Trump will ensure that on his watch, trade policies will be implemented by and for the people, and will put America first.

By fighting for fair but tough trade deals, we can bring jobs back to America’s shores, increase wages, and support U.S. manufacturing.

In something called, "the Mexico City policy", which changes back and forth depending on whether US government is Republican or Democrat, Trump has, as promised, separated US Aid from funding abortions as part of family planning, except in circumstances like rape. This is probably to appease his Vice President, Mike Pence, an 'evangelical catholic', and without whom he might not have got support from christian fundamentalists in the Republican party.

It requires foreign non-governmental organizations to not provide or promote abortion services if they receive funds from the U.S. government. Specifically, the funds would come from the United States Agency for International Development, and abortion cannot be presented as a “method of family planning.” Promoting abortion services includes work such as counseling for women that includes language on abortions.

The policy was named for Mexico City because it was announced at the United Nations International Conference on Population in that location.
It was signed into law by former President Ronald Reagan and went into effect in 1985.

The policy stayed in effect until 1993, when it was rescinded by former President Bill Clinton. Since then, it has been reinstated by every Republican president and rescinded by every Democratic president within their first few days in office. Obama rescinded it exactly eight years ago, on Jan. 23, 2009.

Obama’s statement when he repealed the policy read, in part, “It is clear that the provisions of the Mexico City Policy are unnecessarily broad and unwarranted under current law, and for the past eight years, they have undermined efforts to promote safe and effective voluntary family planning in developing countries. For these reasons, it is right for us to rescind this policy and restore critical efforts to protect and empower women and promote global economic development.”

The presidents previous to Obama who took actions on the policy signed them on Jan. 22 of their respective years, which is the anniversary of the Roe v. Wade decision. Some noted in 2009 that Obama likely waited a day on purpose due to the anniversary, though Obama never confirmed or denied that.

The order does provide exceptions in cases of rape, incest or life-threatening conditions.

Critics of the policy refer to it as the “Global Gag Rule,” and the U.S. has been unsuccessfully sued over the policy by those who say it limits freedom of speech.

The policy creates legal problems for organizations in certain countries, such as South Africa, where the groups are legally required to inform a woman seeking an abortion of her rights and refer her to a facility that would perform an abortion.

What's free about FTT that means industries and jobs are sacrificed. That surely is a high cost. It's said to be a major blow to the Australian government, as Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull had been holding out hope that Mr Trump might not go ahead with his TPP election promise. Mr Trump said he was pursuing what he called “fair trade”, as opposed to purely free trade. He sensibly want to bring back manufacturing into his own country. Any companies that moved offshore and then tried to sell products back to America would be landed with a hefty tax!

A 2016 analysis from the World Bank found highly developed countries such as Australia would gain little advantage from the pact as we were already fairly free of trade restrictions. The benefits would be for exporters, the big corporations and global enterprises. These heavy-weights seem always to have government backing and they in turn bend backwards to accommodate them - and ignore the higher unemployment and loss of industries.

Australia has already lost so many industries, and governments wonder how to fix the unemployment problem? We are nation now of customer-service specialists.

Trust in the World bank or any such neoliberal instrument is like walking on eggs, but I do take your point Viv. I'll contend that there is no such thing as free trade and that any rational person (there's still a couple left) would not enter into any such agreement. Then again, there's no such thing as "rational" when it comes to the COALition!!